You know that Snoopy poster you have on your bedroom wall that states “it doesn’t matter if you win or lose... until you lose” ? That thought will stay with you for the rest of your life. And that other poster of Bjorn Borg? Well I’m sorry, but you’re not going to make any money playing tennis.

At 16 years old you are working towards getting exam results to take you to university – although you haven’t a clue what you want to do. OK, so you’ll achieve that but when you get there do try and apply yourself and stay longer than a couple of years – but I fear you will not heed my words. Yes, it will be great fun.

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So, it will not be the best of starts for your career choices. Take yourself away from Scotland and go to France. Work for a cognac company for a couple of years and travel the regions of France selling cognac and Scotch where you might meet a French girl you will one day marry. You won’t appreciate it at the time but the ability to speak another language will serve you well.

Despite the inclement weather you are keen to return to Scotland. The golf is better. An early career in advertising will allow you to meet lifelong friends. You will discover a bit later in life, however, that the weekend does not always start in the pub at midday on a Friday.

You’ll come to realise that it wasn’t such a bad idea to have some qualifications and you will go to night school at the Central College of Commerce in Glasgow for a few years to obtain these in marketing – it will be quite hard combining full-time work and studying. It would have been a lot easier if you had stuck in at uni. Anyway, you’ll make a few mistakes in life but it is important not to have any regrets.

During your career in manufacturing you will work in two very Scottish industries: whisky and confectionery. A phrase that can be equally applied to describe the consumption of both products is “everything in moderation”. It would have been good if you could be aware of that concept from about that age.

The two types of business are similar. You buy stuff in – raw materials and packaging – you develop a product, calculate how much it costs to manufacture the product, then add on a margin, and sell the product at a profit to someone who adds on another margin and they sell it to the end user. OK, so maybe there are a few other considerations but don’t unnecessarily complicate the process.

And products need sold. Everything needs sold. So whilst you like the advertising and marketing side of promoting consumer brands, you’ll realise that achieving profitable sales is critical to business success. If you are successful at selling, it will be the safest job to be in when your company is cutting costs. You will be fortunate and privileged to travel to many countries around the world selling Scotch whisky, and also travelling to Bradford to sell snowballs and teacakes.

Your move from Whyte and Mackay Scotch whisky to Lees confectionery will not be driven by your desire to visit Bradford, but by the continuing corporate changes at Whyte and Mackay. Lees is a smaller business, a great Scottish brand and you will join as commercial director.

One of the major differences is that your father runs the company and he does this in his own style. During the initial years you will live with that whilst you learn all about the business and work out what the company needs to do to grow and be successful. Unfortunately, what you believe is the right strategic direction for the company is at odds with your father’s view. The result is a shake up in the management and with the support of the major shareholders you’ll take over the role of chief executive.

There are difficult decisions to make in life – but always be true to yourself. In business you will learn to do what you believe is right, for the company, its customers and its employees, despite some potential unfortunate consequences.

A major change for Lees will be the decision to come off the AIM market. You never believed it was the right place for Lees Foods to be.

It is a challenging process to achieve the delisting but importantly it is one that will result in you and your team gaining complete control over the future direction of the company.

There is more than one way to be successful in business – when you become a leader you don’t have to be dictatorial to achieve success. It’s much better to surround yourself with a team that you trust and that you can work together with. Discuss and agree with them how the business should develop in an open and transparent manner. Always set targets. Have a plan. If you don’t know where you want to get to, you will never get there.

It is important that you treat people fairly and behave towards them as you would want them to behave towards you.

It is not easy to get the work/life balance right, and there will come a day when you will have a couple of great kids. Make time for them when they are young because those early years pass by so quickly.

There may be some people who tell you it’s not the winning but the taking part that really matters – you’ll work out for yourself whether that is true or not.

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You should remember that you go into business for two reasons – profit and fun. You’ll spend a lot of time in the work place so remember to enjoy yourself along the way. That’s after having made some profit first, by the way! Good luck.

Clive Miquel is the chief executive of Lees Foods, a company whose origins date back to 1931 when Coatbridge grocer's son John Lees invested the Macaroon Bar. After an early career in advertising, Miquel worked for Camus Cognac in France and Whyte & Mackay Distillers in Scotland, culminating as European sales director with the latter. He joined Lees in 2004 as commercial director, became managing director in 2007 and following a boardroom reshuffle replaced his father Raymond Miquel as chief executive in 2009